Do you like to give homemade gifts to teachers or grandparents? We do, and as a teacher, I can tell you that they are appreciated. I know my parents and in-laws always love and appreciate the homemade gifts, too. As mentioned in a previous blog post, Camp Riverbend and homemade go hand-in-hand! For this one, we decided to take our “relaxation jar” idea and make it into a snow globe.

The nearly-finished snow globe

The first step in this process may be the most challenging, unless you buy new jars. I used an old jam jar, which entailed removing the label and the sticky residue. I tried 3 different methods. The first thing I tried to do was fill the jar with water and microwave it to boil the water. The heat of the boiling water combined with the steam in the microwave should help the label come right off. I let the water cool a bit, since I was not interested in burning myself, and the label did come off with a little coaxing. However, there was tons of residue. In fact, there was not one part of the jar without it!

I wanted to get all that glue off!

I tried rubbing it with nail polish remover. That did not work at all. I had thought that was going to be a sure thing, so I was losing hope that I would be able to save this jar. Enter the olive oil. I poured a bit onto a paper towel and started rubbing the jar. It took only a few minutes to leave the jar completely devoid of glue. I washed the jar and we were good to go!

The olive oil worked!

Next I had my daughter add the glitter glue and the glitter. For the next jar we did, we just added clear craft/tacky glue and glitter. Then I (an adult) added very hot water, capped the jar, and shook it to dissolve the glue. I kind of eyeballed the amount of glue and glitter added. It was a generous amount. I had taken the caps off and let her squeeze it in that way, and there were a few serious glugs of glue that went in.

Adding the glitter glue. All we could find at the store was pink.

Once it was dissolved, we tested it a few times to see if we needed to add more glitter. The 5 year-old decided that we DEFINITELY needed more glitter. We also decided to add food coloring to the one with pink glue. The clear one we left clear with iridescent white and blue glitter. The next step was to add the decorations. We decided to add some holiday-ish leaves and flowers to float around. You could get all sorts of fancy here and hot glue or super glue some decorations to the inside of the lid. This will make it look more like a snow globe. Let your creativity shine! If you decide to do that, make sure the lid is completely dry AND that you let it all set/dry completely before adding the liquid.

The finished “snowglobe” with ribbon glued to the jar lid.

Once you are certain that you have everything how you want it, with enough glue, water, and glitter, dry off the lid and the rim and glue it shut. I didn’t glue them shut yet, because I am still fussing with them a bit. But you should definitely glue them before giving as gifts. You can also hot glue some ribbon to the edge of the lid to make it more decorative. You can see in the picture that the I glittered the top of the lid of the clear snow globe. That jar/lid was a little wobbly when placed upside down on the lid, so I covered up the brand and this way it will look pretty as is.

The clear glue with iridescent and blue glitter.

I think these would make lovely gifts for teachers, grandparents, or anyone who would appreciate a handmade gift.